FIrst cross race of the season was today! I didn't race it! Instead, I am doing a 5 or 6 hour gravel grinder ride tomorrow! Wish me luck, because I will need it! I am hoping to consume an entire sin dawg while riding.

_________________If you spit on my food I will blow your forking head off, you filthy shitdog. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed

Ugh there's some huge mtb race this Sunday but I feel like I can't do it because I've been really sick and it's been impacting my fitness. But I did win a 24mtb race recently so everyone is really pushing me.

Ugh there's some huge mtb race this Sunday but I feel like I can't do it because I've been really sick and it's been impacting my fitness. But I did win a 24mtb race recently so everyone is really pushing me.

hmm you know best but if you have a full season of cross soon, i wouldnt push it while sick. youll never get better. also congrats on the 24hr mtb win. did you sleep at all?

I don't have a full season, probably only doing 5 or 6. I have ibs so biking won't make it worse but im coming off of some time with lots of fatigue. Yeah, i slept a bit. People on teams which is more common slept more. I fid it solo.

Sin Dawgs pack about 1600 calories in a relatively small, dense package, so they're great for long rides where you need a lot of fuel but don't have a ton of space to put 1,000,000 shot bloks or whatever.

I did my first MTB ride in a year. My boyfriend and I went camping up at a super remote, gorgeous alpine lake in the Cascades, and there's a 28-mile trail around the lake. I was promised easy riding, but parts of it were way hard! I only crashed once, and we also ran into a hornet's nest, so I was stung twice (he got stung 6 times, since he was heroic enough to run back and get my bike when I freaked the hell out). I still hella suck at mountain biking, but lots of the ride was pretty fun. I definitely need to get a bike of my own and get out on some beginner appropriate trails, since right now, having done more advanced stuff without the proper skills, my biggest barrier is confidence.

The gravel ride over the weekend was EPIC. 60 miles, 5,500 feet of climbing, and so amazing and gorgeous. It was seriously my favorite ride of the year.

_________________If you spit on my food I will blow your forking head off, you filthy shitdog. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed

I don't have a full season, probably only doing 5 or 6. I have ibs so biking won't make it worse but im coming off of some time with lots of fatigue. Yeah, i slept a bit. People on teams which is more common slept more. I fid it solo.

Got yah. I was always curious about doing a solo 24hr mtb race and if its better to huck the no sleep or get a couple hours in. Life gets blurry after being in the saddle for ~24hrs.

jordanpattern wrote:

Sin Dawgs pack about 1600 calories in a relatively small, dense package, so they're great for long rides where you need a lot of fuel but don't have a ton of space to put 1,000,000 shot bloks or whatever.

I did my first MTB ride in a year. My boyfriend and I went camping up at a super remote, gorgeous alpine lake in the Cascades, and there's a 28-mile trail around the lake. I was promised easy riding, but parts of it were way hard! I only crashed once, and we also ran into a hornet's nest, so I was stung twice (he got stung 6 times, since he was heroic enough to run back and get my bike when I freaked the hell out). I still hella suck at mountain biking, but lots of the ride was pretty fun. I definitely need to get a bike of my own and get out on some beginner appropriate trails, since right now, having done more advanced stuff without the proper skills, my biggest barrier is confidence.

The gravel ride over the weekend was EPIC. 60 miles, 5,500 feet of climbing, and so amazing and gorgeous. It was seriously my favorite ride of the year.

Hmm, I like the sound of these things. Are they in shops by you all or do you order them?

Haha yah mtbing is something I think you need to do pretty often to be confident. Is that the gravel jawn you did instead of racing? Was it mostly people on cx bikes or a mtbs?

Haha yah mtbing is something I think you need to do pretty often to be confident.

I am terrible at mtb-ing, meaning, I don't have mad skills, but I have so much fun I just don't care. Mountain biking is its own reward! Also, I learned, that if I have confidence in my bike, which I do, that is half the battle. I just go with it.

I'm doing my first races of the season this weekend - a two-day thing in Hood River (WHERE THE TOFURKY FACTORY IS).

_________________If you spit on my food I will blow your forking head off, you filthy shitdog. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed

I rode with my usual club in London today after a really great summer's training at my parent's in the Chiltern Hills. Pace was pretty sporty (some of the Rapha London crew came along, weeesh!) and I felt great, both in spirit and body, for the first 50 odd miles that were pretty flat. We hit some tough climbs after that and my legs just seemed to fall off completely. I feel like my climbing endurance is just awful! I guess things were compounded by the lactic build-up from the previous fast 50 miles and a half ironman last weekend. I really, really want to improve at hills this year though. Are doing hill reps my best bet or is it more a case of building on general strength/fitness/endurance more holistically?

I think you just have to ride a lot of hills, honestly. For me, I think a combination of hill repeats (on shorter climbs) and getting in a good amount of long, sustained climbing is best. The thing that I think you need to learn is where your limit is, so that you can ride near, but not over that, when you are climbing. For me, whenI moved to Portland, I struggled with the climbs here, even though I'm naturally more of a climber than anything. The problem was that the climbs here are really punchy, rather than long, sustained grinds at 5 or 6%. Instead, you'll be going along at 5%, and then it will tilt up for 16% for a little bit, and then back down to 4%, and so on. I'd blow up because I'd go too hard on the pitchy sections, so I had to practice both climbing punchier things and increasing my power for that, while keeping on doing longer climbs. It's helped a lot, and I'm climbing the steeper stuff a lot faster than I used to, while my pace at the more gradual climbs has increased as well. I hope that makes some sense? Also, I think it does just kind of come with getting your body used to sustained efforts, both mentally and physically - you have to learn to just suffer! :)

Over here in Portland, cross season is officially here. I did two races this weekend, racing Women's Bs. I WAS TERRIBLE! My fitness is great right now, but man, I really, really, really struggled with all the technical stuff. I don't have anywhere near the handling/technical ability of the B women here. I think I'm going to downgrade and do some races in the Cs, because yikes. That said, there's a mid-week race series starting on Wednesday that is pretty close to my house, so I will be doing that, and trying to get in lots of weekend races, so hopefully I'll get my shiitake together fairly quickly. It's so different from road racing, and I find it much more intimidating, even though the stakes are so much lower (at least in terms of crashing, etc.).

_________________If you spit on my food I will blow your forking head off, you filthy shitdog. - MumblesDon't you know that vegan meat is the gateway drug to chicken addiction? Because GMO and trans-fats. - kaerlighed